KOMPAS.com - Is it a bird, is it a plane or is it... a meteor? Well, one member of the public couldn't believe his eyes when he saw this strange glowing ball speeding across the sky as he was taking his son to the park.
Quick-thinking Matthew Pinless was able to whip out his camera phone and snap the 'speeding red light' as it burnt through Earth's atmosphere above Cheltenham.
The 31-year-old followed the object as it ploughed through the sky around 5pm last Tuesday, but lost it seconds later when it disappeared behind a cloud. 'At first I thought it was a plane but it was going so fast I thought it must be something else,' Mr Pinless said.
'I realised it must be a meteorite, which makes sense because there was a red trail followed by a tapering orange light behind it.
'I grabbed my camera phone and took two pictures as quick as I could before it disappeared behind a cloud.
'I don't subscribe to the UFO theory, so I am fairly sure it was a meteor. I would be interested to hear if anybody else saw it in the sky.'
Matthew, a volunteer youth church worker in Cheltenham, was taking his 16-month-old son Thomas to the park when he saw the flash out the corner of his eye.
He traced it through the sky before the flaming matter vanished behind a cloud. Matthew, married to Suzie, 27, added: 'It was only in my field of vision for around three or four seconds before it went behind a cloud.
'I tried to see where it would reappear but it was nowhere to be seen. I'd really like to know if anyone else saw it as it was a pretty sizeable meteorite.'
A meteor becomes a meteorite if it survives an impact with Earth's surface.
